Avijit Haldar (B.1988) ghost, Baruipur India

Avijit Haldar (B.1988) ghost, Baruipur India photography 88.9 x 71.12cm (35 x 28in). Footnotes: ''I feel blessed to have had the kind of childhood I had. Being able to make something out of it is something that I feel really proud of, in a sense.'' Avijit Halder's journey commenced with the Academy Award-winning documentary 'Born into Brothels' in 2004. The film, 'Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids' written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, follows Briski's journey through Sonagachi in Kolkata, India. Upon reaching the district, she began to teach sex workers' children the basics of photography. Halder was among the eight kids she taught. This documentary played a profoundly pivotal role in shaping his early identity. Halder's work for the auction titled 'ghost' set in Baruipur, India, is from his series titled 'नेति नेति (not this, not that)'. The series emerged from his fascination with mythology and dichotomy within a space. He turns the gaze towards himself by employing his body as a subject. The genesis of ''ghost' Baruipur, India', followed a solo exhibition at Higher Pictures in New York. 'This happened after the exhibition. My grandmother was still alive and I wanted to take pictures with her.' Triggered by the stroke suffered by his grandmother, the last surviving member of his immediate family, he returned to India in 2020. Portraying his grandmother through his own guise, draped in her sari, Halder captures her in her ancestral home in West Bengal. 'I was thinking of this idea of awakening and jolting because she could not move. I positioned her head with her hand. I pretended to wear her sari and be a ghost. I was interested in whether this fabric would create a shape—almost like a brush stroke. I wanted to show her world,' Halder says. Being brought up in a brothel lent an unconventional aspect to his upbringing. Rather than viewing it through a lens of adversity, he cherishes this period as one that enriched his formative years. 'I feel blessed to have had the kind of childhood I had. Being able to make something out of it is something that I feel really proud of, in a sense.' Through his camera, he seeks to highlight these roots, capturing fragments of his identity and understanding. 'I've been trying to learn about identity. I think that's where the work is—keeping the evolution of identity constant, in a nutshell,' he says. His foray into the arts began with watercolours during his schooling years. 'I was in third grade when my mom took me to a coaching centre for art. I really loved watercolour and painting. All this was happening while I lived in the brothel.' Amidst this, the arrival of the photographers conducting a workshop presented an opportunity to delve into photography, a medium that would eventually become a natural tool for expression for Halder. 'Photography became a tool for doing the same things I was doing through watercolour. Soon after my mother passed away and the movie was made.' Following the completion of the film, he seized the chance to make use of available resources that facilitated his move to the United States. 'Since nine years of age, photography has been a big part of my life. Somehow, miraculously, a camera landed in my life. Someone like me who grew up in a space like that would not have had access to such an expensive tool.' However, the camera also evoked fear, symbolising visibility in a world where anonymity was paramount. 'I was actually quite afraid of it in the beginning because having that made me a target in my community. The important thing in my community was for people to stay invisible and live. The camera was like a weapon.' Yet, he recognised its dual nature, using it not to capture his environment but to arbitrarily capture animals, railings, and lamps around him. Transitioning to the United States, his initial ambition veered toward a medical career, while his passion for photography persisted. Engaging in photography courses in high school and college, his approach to the medium changed. 'My ways of using the camera became academic and institutional. I saw other photographers, artists and mainly photojournalists, making work. My use of it had changed and I was trying to make sense of what it means to be a photographer—but not take it professionally.' However, Halder soon felt his voice was overshadowed by established narratives. 'What I wanted to say was already told by other people, by the movie, and my work now had institutional and academic layers.' Upon completing his BFA in Film & Television, at Tisch School of the Arts NYU, New York in 2012, he shifted towards reclaiming his expression through an MFA program at the International Center of Photography, Bard College, New York in 2019. 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